Sunday, May 3, 2009

Utah never had a chance in this series. All the Laker wins were double digit victories, whereas Utah's one win came by a mere two points. Utah was outscored by 46 points over the 5 games.

The Lakers were led by their big three of Kobe (27/5/5), Gasol (18/9/1), and Odom (17/11/2) whereas Utah was only a two star team with Boozer (20/13/2) and Deron (20/3/10) fighting vailiantly, but clearly lacked the necessary firepower as Mehmet Okur (8 pts, 10 rebounds, 2-12 FG) was ineffective in the two games he played through his injury).

New Orleans was limited by injuries and as with the Laker/Jazz series, they were blown out in all their losses and could only muster a 2 point win. This included a 58 point trouncing by Denver, who won this series by a jaw dropping 102 points over the 5 games.

CP3 (16/4/10) and West (18/7/1) were playing at half-speed by the time the series was over, and were just no match for Melo (24/6/5) and Billups (22/4/7). Denver's bench absolutely killed New Orleans (as expected). Tyson Chandler was a total non-factor in the series and has probably played his last game in a Hornets uniform. Chris Andersen, who couldn't get off the Hornets bench last season, was all-world for Denver (12-16 FG, plus 9 blks in 112 mins) and New Orleans probably should have made a more aggressive attempt to keep the Birdman last summer.

The loss of Ginobili proved to be the critical blow to San Antonio, who had no answers to Dallas deep bench. JJ Barea proved himself early in the series and quickly became a starter, providing the Devin Harris-like quickness that San Antonio couldn't stop in 2006. Dallas simply had too many weapons at it's disposal, while the Spurs were essentially the Tim & Tony show. When the #3 scorer on your team is averaging 8 ppg (Finley), chances are you didn't win your series, no matter how vailant an effort your stars (Parker 28/4/6 and Duncan 19/8/3) put forth.

Way to second guess yourself Rashidi. Portland struggled to score as Houston's defense took Portland's role players out of the series by playing Roy straight up. Houston had a very balanced offensive attack with four players averaging 15 ppg in the series (Scola, Yao, Artest, & Brooks) whereas Portland didn't get much beyond Roy (26/4/2) and Aldridge (19/7/5). Houston has the look and feel of the 2004 Pistons, although to be quite honest they have their hands full, as the Lakers team they are going to face in round two is much better than the one Detroit easily dispatched 5 years ago.